Nexus - 0109 - New Times Magazine-pages

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and animal products, and the need for refigeration of these and the growth in car air-conditioners. “All these products are CFC-dependent. But instead of looking at ways to reduce the amount of CFCs we should look at alternative materials.” One of the feedstock chemicals for producing CFCs is carbon tetrachloride, a potent poison; it’s a very dirty industry. Margaret Thatcher has proposed that British fridges should have a deposit included in the purchase price which would be refunded by manufacturers when refrigerators or CFC cooling units are returned for ‘recycling’. Reclamation of the danger- ous CFCs still in their cooling systems by manufacturers is now possible - meanwhile, don’t throw out your fridge if it can be repaired. Convert Your Fridge A GROUP OF CFC ALTERNATIVES HAS BEEN PATENTED _BY THE US CHEMICAL GIANT Du Pont. Two new " refrigerants, HFC 134a and HFC124, are’ blends of existing ozone-safe refrigerants that mimic the properties of CFC 11 and 12. Replacement of CFCs in aerosols and packaging has been undertaken rapidly but only a single alternative has emerged for refrigeration. HFC 134a is in a 5 year toxicity testing program but Du Pont believes the technology will lead to a more rapid phasing out of CFCs. Importantly, the new blends can be used in existing equipment with only minor changes, so that the world’s $250 billion worth of refrigeration equipment will not have to be replaced. 7 Australia has received a trial batch of the blends, but commercial quantities will not be available until around 1993. Du Pont has a good incentive to get HFC compounds into production ~ their price is expected to be 4 or 5 times higher than conventional CFCs. Backpedaling ACCORDING TO THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY Com- MISSION THE EC propuces 40% OF THE WORLD’S CFCs, of which one third is exported. EC environment , Ministers are pushing for cuts in CFC production of between 85% and 100% by the end of the century instead of the 50% cuts agreed to in the Montreal Protocol. Countries that are backing the move to tighter standards are Denmark, West Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, and they are also looking at revising the Montreal Protocol to include these standards. : The Montreal Protocol calls for a freeze on CFC consump- tion at 1986 levels and a 50% reduction during the 1990s. If production of CFCs is cut by 90% in 10 years time it will take 50 years longer for the same amount of ozone to be replaced than it would if the 90% cut was made tomorrow. Inreality, even the new ‘stringent’ cuts called for by the EC ministers are still inadequate. Backpedaling NEXUS New. Times Nine - Tasmanian Conference THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE OZONE LAYER AND RELATED HEALTH EFFECTS was held in Hobart last May. Itexamined scientific evidence of changes in the ozone layer and levels of ultraviolet radiation. Diseases including eye cataracts, skin cancers and melanomas were also studied. “We know that the incidence of melanoma is going up around the world and has been since the war,” said Profes- sor Terry Dwyer. “The rates in the southern hemisphere appear to be higher than in the northern hemisphere. But there has been no definite link so far with the high rate of melanomaand the ozone layer.” (See Dreamstory in this issue) The conference advised that children’s should be kept indoors in the middle of the day. Solar ‘block-out’ creams were also downplayed as merely a second line of defence, as they don’t stop damage to the body’s immune system by UV radiation despite reducing sunburn. Furthermore, an ingredi- ent used in most sunscreen lotions can break down into a cell-altering substance. The ingredient, padimate 0, is de- signed to block UV radiation but can cause cell changes itself. Greg Giles, director of Victoria’s Anti-Cancer Council, told the conference that incidence of melanoma in Australia is increasing by 6 % per year for men and 5% per year for women, Researchers estimate that a 3%-6% thinning of the ozone layer beads to a6%-12% increase in UV radiation striking the ground. What To Do THE AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC IS NOW BEING TOLD TO AVOID THE SUN between 11am and 3pm and to wear hats and sunglasses and use block-out creams and umbrellas. This is, coincidentally, the sole solution recommended, at first, by the Reagan administration to the American people. Planting trees is a very good idea. Not only do they help repair the atmosphere, but they provide shade. And remember - 1 ong hair is nature's sun-shield: Or you can mutate now and avoid the rush. Gerard